1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cable connector and an endoscope apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a cable connector and an endoscope apparatus, in which a high number of electric lines of a cable structure can be coupled for electrical connection in a simplified structure and safely without problems in transmitting operation.
2. Description Related to the Prior Art
An endoscope apparatus includes an elongated tube, a tip device and a circuit device or electrical device. The elongated tube is entered in a body cavity of a patient's body to be diagnosed. The tip device is disposed at a distal end of the elongated tube. The circuit device is contained in the tip device or disposed behind the tip device. Examples of the circuit device are a camera module, imaging unit or ultrasonic transducer. A cable structure is connected with the circuit device and extends in an axial direction. The cable structure includes numerous electric lines, which are connected to a control unit disposed in the outside of the body. The circuit device is controlled and driven by the control unit.
A flexible tube device is included in the elongated tube, and dispose to extend from the tip device. The tip device is a part originally separate from the flexible tube device. In the assembling operation, the circuit device is contained the tip device at first. The cable structure from the circuit device is passed through the flexible tube device. Then the flexible tube device is connected with the tip device.
The cable structure passes through the flexible tube device on the elongated tube. It is extremely difficult to connect each one of the electric lines in the cable structure to the control unit after passage through the flexible tube device. If the electric lines are connected with a mechanical part with a larger width than an inner diameter of the elongated tube, maintenance of the endoscope apparatus is very hard. This is because the cable structure can be removed from the flexible tube device only after cutting the electric lines from the mechanical part.
A cable connector or board connector at an end of the cable structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2005/143,658 (corresponding to JP-A 2005-192640) and U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2005/143,659 (corresponding to JP-A 2005-192639). The cable connector includes conductive lands in a land pattern, terminals in a terminal group, and a wiring pattern. The land pattern is used for connection of the electric lines of the cable structure. The terminal group is connectable to a mating connector for coupling with the cable connector. The wiring pattern wires the land pattern to the terminal group. The cable connector is coupled with the mating connector, to facilitate connective coupling and decoupling of the cable structure even after penetration of the cable structure in the elongated tube.
In the cable connector according to the above documents, the land pattern is single, to which all of the electric lines are connected in a concentrated manner. There arises a problem in which conductive lands are disposed extremely close to each other. Difficulty in coupling the electric lines to the conductive lands is very high. Also, conductive lines in the wiring pattern are extremely near to each other. Thus, breakage of lines, short-circuiting and electric noise are likely to occur seriously. If the number of the electric lines for connection to the cable connector is lowered and the number of the cable connector is increased for safe disposition of the conductive lines or conductive lands, then another problem arises in low operability in mounting the cable structure in the flexible tube device of the elongated tube.